The acceptable disposal of harmful and offensive industrial waste materials has, of course, long been a matter of serious concern, which concern has, with time, become critical. This is due to a number of factors, fundamental amongst which is the compound effect of ever-rising demands made upon steadily diminishing disposal facilities. While, therefore, new and better methods are constantly being sought for either eliminating the waste, or for converting it to a usable (or at least innocuous) form, the development of technologically feasible and economically attractive alternatives is not only difficult in the first instance, but is also severely constrained by the need to satisfy stringent prevailing environmental standards.
Because toxic and otherwise obnoxious solutions of metals are involved, the electroplating industry has long been faced with difficult waste disposal problems. Despite widely used techniques for recovering metal values from exhausted plating baths, dilute rinsewater streams, and the like, and for destroying objectionable chemical species (e.g., phenols, cyanide, phosphates, and the like), the need for safe, effective, convenient, practical, environmentally acceptable and economically attractive disposal schemes remains acute.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a novel method for disposing of waste metals in a manner that is safe, effective, convenient, practical and attractive, from both economic and also environmental standpoints.
It is a related object of the invention to provide such a method which is relatively uncomplicated, safe and convenient to carry out.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel method of the foregoing sort, which may be utilized to convert waste metals into products in which the metal is not only safely and permanently isolated, but which also have value on the marketplace sufficient to at least offset the cost that would be involved in disposal by other means, and which may in some instances provide a positive economic return.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide novel filler materials, and unique products incorporating the same, utilizing resources that would otherwise constitute an undesirable waste product for which means of disposal are both scarce and also expensive.